Either you need to expose those two services to the Internet or use a VPN. You mention vpns are inconvenient but have you checked out tailscale? The free account does your needs and it’s by far the easiest one I have set up. You can also look into a cloudflare tunnel but you would need a domain name for that
This person would probably be able to get away with living in the US without too many looks but this is a slang term for vagina in the UK so they might have a rough childhood there.